Drug war congests jails by over 500%

The campaign against illegal drugs has congested the facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) by more than 500 percent, an official said yesterday.

Around 25,000 inmates have been added since July with the arrest of 53,025 suspected drug pushers and users and surrender of 1.2 million others, said Chief Superintendent Allan Iral, BJMP deputy chief for operations.

Iral said the number does not include around 40,000 inmates in provincial jails and 50,000 in facilities of the Bureau of Corrections.

“Our target is just around 110,000 prisoners. Now we have around 135,000,” he said.

Iral said they expect the number of inmates to further increase under Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded.

He said around 80 percent of inmates in urbanized cities, including Metro Manila, are facing charges for illegal drugs and the remaining 20 percent for murder, rape, homicide, robbery and petty crimes.

Biñan City Jail in Laguna, which has a capacity of only 22, is among the most overcrowded with 602 detainees.

The BJMP and the International Committee of the Red Cross launched yesterday the electronic paralegal learning module, an interactive offline earning platform containing basic legal modules and resources in a bid to strengthen the paralegal system.

“We developed this learning platform based on the challenges faced by our paralegals, which include lack of training and varying availability of resource materials in the jails. By ensuring that our paralegals have the necessary tools and resources, we will be able to capacitate them so they can help us process the inmates’ cases and decongest our jails,” BJMP Director Serafin Barretto Jr. said in a statement.

The system was pilot-tested in 15 jails in Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon). It will be available in all detention facilities next month.